


A Few Weeks Behind

by OzQueen



Category: Nancy Drew - Carolyn Keene, Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Backstory, Crossover, Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-23
Updated: 2014-11-23
Packaged: 2018-02-26 17:50:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2661008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OzQueen/pseuds/OzQueen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Wow,” Emma said, raising her glass in a small salute. “I was clearly wasting my time here.”</p><p>Nancy shook her head with a grin. “No, you would have figured it out. I just had a head start.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Few Weeks Behind

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [intoabar](http://intoabar.dreamwidth.org/): Emma Swan walks into a bar and meets Nancy Drew. I'll edit in a title as soon as I can think of one - it's midnight and I need to sleep and this is the last chance I have to make the challenge deadline, haha. Because I had weeks to complete this but of course let's cram it all into two hours right at the very end...

Chicago was brightly lit under a heavy grey sky, the streets shining under a layer of rain. 

Emma shifted in her seat, her attention focused on the entrance of the bar on the corner, holiday lights and arcs of tinsel lining the windows. Icy drops of rain dappled the windshield, but when she saw her mark approaching under the shelter of an umbrella, a pretty blonde clinging to his arm, she didn't think twice about leaving the warmth of her car.

She blew out a sharp breath and balled her hands deep into the pockets of her red jacket as she crossed the street, eyes stinging in the raw wind. 

The bar was only half full, but it still felt crowded. Emma took in the room of bad suits and bad haircuts, clusters of people celebrating the end of the week with glasses of cheap beer and house wine. She caught sight of her target taking a table in the corner, his date fluttering her eyelashes at him as she took her seat.

She took a barstool, her back to their table but a good view of O'Hara and his date in the giant mirror hanging over the shelves of liquor behind the bar.

“What can I get you?” The girl behind the bar tucked an errant strand of strawberry-blonde hair behind her ear. Her name tag read _Nancy_.

Emma held out a folded bill in her fingers and pointed to a bottle on the shelf below the mirror. “MacCutcheon, neat. Thanks.”

She watched as Nancy poured out her drink, but her eyes weren't on the task at hand – Emma noticed, in fact, that she was using the mirror to watch the couple in the corner. 

Emma dropped her eyes back to the bar to avoid being caught watching, and smiled as Nancy set her drink down. Nancy smiled back, but her eyes flicked to a point over Emma's shoulder before she spun on her heel and went to take another order further down the bar, her ponytail swaying against her shoulders.

Emma glanced back at the mirror to make sure her suspect hadn't moved – he hadn't – and then she went back to watching Nancy.

She was definitely watching O'Hara and his date, Emma decided. It didn't take a genius to figure it out – in fact, O'Hara would probably notice if his date allowed his attention to wander for more than three consecutive seconds. 

She rolled the edge of her glass against the grain of the bar, idly wondering if Nancy was just watching him because he had an owner's stake in the bar, or for other reasons more in alignment with Emma's. 

Holiday music was being piped in somewhere; she could only just hear it under the hum and bubble of voices and laughter. 

_My baby's gone, I have no friends  
To wish me greetings once again_

Emma muttered a curse against the lip of her glass and took a quick swallow of her scotch. 

She watched in the mirror as O'Hara got to his feet, holding onto his date's hand and raising it to his lips for a gentle kiss. Emma couldn't hear him, but she could read the words on his lips as she watched his reflection in the mirror: I won't be long, sweetheart.

She could only watch in frustration as he disappeared behind a door marked Staff Only – and then, not a minute later, Nancy had taken his seat at the table and was swapping hurried whispers with his date.

Emma blinked in surprise. The look on the blonde's face was one of mild disgust, and Emma could almost hear the words “so gross” as she shot a dirty look towards the door O'Hara had disappeared through. 

Emma spun on her stool and pretended to survey the artwork on the walls behind her, tilting her head a little so she could hear the conversation between the two women at the corner table.

“Hang in there, Bess,” Nancy said, not without sympathy. “I'm sure he's checking the safe now. Ned set the camera up in the office this afternoon. If we get footage of him taking that money, we can go straight to the police.”

“Son of a bitch,” Emma muttered. She spun around again and took another slug of her scotch. She'd clearly discovered this too late – someone else was about to pin O'Hara for his shitty criminal activity.

Stealing from your own bar, though? Emma raked her hands through her hair and blew out a breath.

“Another drink?” Nancy appeared in front of her, her cheeks looking a little flushed and her eyes a little too bright.

“Yeah,” Emma said dully. “I think I need it.”

“Bad night?” Nancy asked sympathetically. She glanced towards the staff door again. Emma knew she was itching to go back there, but it was smarter to let the hidden camera do its work. 

She just shrugged and gestured at the tinsel lining the shelves behind the bar. “Not really a fan of this time of year,” she said vaguely, unsure if she should give the real reason.

Nancy opened her mouth to respond, but was distracted by O'Hara's return. Emma watched through the mirror as he slipped back into his seat opposite Bess, leaning over to kiss her cheek. She beamed at him and flipped her blonde curls back over her shoulder.

“Uh – MacCutcheon,” Nancy said awkwardly, trying to bring herself back to her bar-tending tasks as she set Emma's glass down. 

Emma could feel nervous energy radiating off her in waves. “Hey,” she murmured, lifting her head slightly, “if you keep watching him, he's going to get wise to you.”

Nancy blinked at her, and Emma raised her eyebrow slightly. “If you've got a camera back there, you can relax. The hard work has been done.”

Nancy leaned forward, sounding breathless. “Who are you?”

“I'm you, just a few weeks behind,” Emma said dryly. “And unwilling to go undercover as a barmaid.” She raised her glass to Nancy with a small smile. “Kudos, Nancy.”

Nancy glanced down at her name tag and then laughed. “I didn't think I was being so obvious.”

“You're not,” Emma said with a small shrug. “I watch out for this stuff.” She hesitated for a moment, and then introduced herself. “Emma Swan.”

Nancy glanced at O'Hara before she grinned at Emma. “Nancy Drew.”

Emma swirled her scotch around the bottom of the glass. “Who's the poor girl on O'Hara's arm?”

“My friend Bess,” Nancy said, wrinkling her nose. “They've been dating a while. She began to think something was up, so she asked me to dig around. I found out he's just ditched his pregnant girlfriend, but that was just the tip of the iceberg.”

Emma leaned forward so she was barely whispering. “Stealing from his own bar?”

Nancy took a long moment to answer. She stared at Emma, clearly weighing up whether or not to confide in her. Emma tried to put on her most trustworthy face, though in doing so, she probably looked shifty as hell.

“It's okay,” she started to say, just as Nancy began to offer her explanation.

“He's been bought out,” she said. She gave a small laugh as Emma motioned for her to keep going. “The paperwork gets signed on Monday. The money he's taking isn't his. The bar isn't his. Marty's been so caught up with the new deal and the new owners, he hasn't noticed O'Hara's been doctoring the books and taking money. But with any luck, it'll all come undone in the next few hours.”

“Wow,” Emma said, raising her glass in a small salute. “I was clearly wasting my time here.”

Nancy shook her head with a grin. “No, you would have figured it out. I just had a head start.”

Emma shrugged. “I'm not so great at figuring out motive,” she admitted. “If I could make a living out of this situation, that'd be great. All the hard work's been done. The only thing left to do is to get the creep behind bars.”

Nancy laughed. “Where's the fun in that? Don't you like the mystery of slipping into an undercover alias? The thrill of narrowing down your suspects? Figuring out a motive?”

Emma drained the rest of her scotch and slipped off her stool. “I like things more clear cut,” she said. “If O'Hara jumps town, give me a call, okay? Let me run him down for you. Finding people is what I do.”

Nancy smiled. “Well, there are a lot of people out there waiting to be found. Good luck, Emma.”

“Thanks for your help, Nancy.” Emma gave her a little salute and slipped her jacket back on as she walked for the door.

Snow was falling, and Emma cut a fresh track through it as she crossed the street, her face turned up to greet the flakes floating through the dark.


End file.
